For those of us that are fed up when traffic lights seem to change to red on the approach, I have the following suggestion that seems to work every time.

If it starts raining, plan to put you roof up at the next set of lights
If you sat nav loses its way, plan to reset it at the next set of lights
if your phone holder unsticks itself from the windscreen causing it to drop in the footwell, plan to retrieve it at the next set of lights
if the object you had on the passenger seat falls to the floor and rolls around annoyingly, plan to put it back at the next set of lights

This way you will be met, instead, with a green light on approach .. works for me...

You'd love driving down Thamesdown Drive where I live in Swindon. Traffic lights every couple of hundred yards for 4 miles. There's a single 1 mile stretch with no lights. It's a 40 mph limit and the local idiots, no doubt blaming the frustration of the lights pull 80 mph down there. Other's floor it to beat the red lights all along the road. 48 accidents in 3 years and several dead.

Things were much better when we just had roundabouts in Swindon. I love the Magic Roundabout! Designed and built over 40 years ago and still flows traffic better than any modern junction would.

The A4 Bath Road through the west side of Slough (past the trading estate) used to have a number of sets of lights phased to be always green if you drove through at 30mph. It no longer appears to work, sadly. I loathe driving in Slough...

motco wrote:The A4 Bath Road through the west side of Slough (past the trading estate) used to have a number of sets of lights phased to be always green if you drove through at 30mph. It no longer appears to work, sadly. I loathe driving in Slough...

How does the poem go??
'Come friendly bombs & fall on Slough, it isn't fit for humans now..'
Lol!
Seriously though, traffic lights are usually synchronised so that if you stick to the speed limit, you should be able to go through them all, once you've waited at the first red one, you should be able to 'ride the wave'.
I used to design & install traffic control systems in France, many years ago in the late 80's & early 90's. I very much doubt that British systems are too different.

motco wrote:The A4 Bath Road through the west side of Slough (past the trading estate) used to have a number of sets of lights phased to be always green if you drove through at 30mph. It no longer appears to work, sadly. I loathe driving in Slough...

How does the poem go??
'Come friendly bombs & fall on Slough, it isn't fit for humans now..'
Lol!
Seriously though, traffic lights are usually synchronised so that if you stick to the speed limit, you should be able to go through them all, once you've waited at the first red one, you should be able to 'ride the wave'.
I used to design & install traffic control systems in France, many years ago in the late 80's & early 90's. I very much doubt that British systems are too different.

That is exactly how it used to work but the side road traffic has become much heavier and I suspect that they have had to abandon the 'wave' system long since

motco wrote:The A4 Bath Road through the west side of Slough (past the trading estate) used to have a number of sets of lights phased to be always green if you drove through at 30mph. It no longer appears to work, sadly. I loathe driving in Slough...

How does the poem go??
'Come friendly bombs & fall on Slough, it isn't fit for humans now..'
Lol!
Seriously though, traffic lights are usually synchronised so that if you stick to the speed limit, you should be able to go through them all, once you've waited at the first red one, you should be able to 'ride the wave'.
I used to design & install traffic control systems in France, many years ago in the late 80's & early 90's. I very much doubt that British systems are too different.

That is exactly how it used to work but the side road traffic has become much heavier and I suspect that they have had to abandon the 'wave' system long since

They're sometimes on a timer, sometimes on a traffic sensor. It sounds like they could be using a mix of the two. No doubt it's the cheapest option, given the austerity measures our road systems are subject to nowadays.

wish you would program the roundabout traffic lights in Telford. as one changes to green the next changes to red at the same time on a timer,if you go all the way around the roundabout you meet 6 red lights on the way as each one changes as the previous one turns green.

...... I think autonomous drive cars are secretly financed by the traffic departments... the idea is to equally frustrate everybody once they become the norm in all the cities.... you do know there will be a total ban on non autonomous cars inside cities and likely on motorways too. That'll push up the accident rate on the minor roads somewhat as that'll be the only place where one will be able to drive in the current mode - well at least until they figure to ban all non autonomous cars from public roads... I guess I'll start a tourist company - "self drive car tours in South Africa" -or anywhere else they will still allow it....